Alabama

Southern Bound: Bold books make good gifts for men

It’s hard to believe, but the holiday season is upon us once again, another year gone. If you have a man or men with any interest in books to buy for this year, there are certainly plenty of worthy titles available.

After a brief visit to Fairhope’s Page & Palette bookstore, where I enjoyed the able assistance of clerks Susan Daniel and Melia Schacherer, I was able to come up with a few recommendations that look to be especially popular this year. All of these titles should be available from area bookstores like Page & Palette, Barnes & Noble and Books-a-Million or from online retailers like Amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com (Christmas delivery by standard shipping is guaranteed if ordered as late as Dec. 20 in most cases).

“Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories” (Harper, $27.99) by Simon Winchester. An absorbing “biography” of the Atlantic Ocean by one of the best narrative nonfiction writers on the scene. Winchester, the author of earlier books about Krakatoa and the making of the Oxford English Dictionary, explores the “huge concentration of ideas, events, inventions, and developments” that the history of the Atlantic represents. Winston Groom, no mean wordsmith himself, pressed this title upon Ms. Daniel with the declaration, “You have to have this book in your store.” So it’s there, and highly recommended.

“Decision Points” (Crown, $35) by George W. Bush. In this highly anticipated memoir, Bush reflects on the many key decisions of his life, both before and during his presidency. These include his determination to quit the bottle, his order for the troop surge in Iraq and his picks for Supreme Court justices and other influential officials. Somewhat surprisingly, he reveals that his greatest disappointment while in office was being labeled a racist for his administration’s sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina. Love him or hate him, his presidency was one of tremendous moment for the country, and his thinking, to the degree that it’s shared here, is worth knowing.

“Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption” (Random, $27) by Laura Hillenbrand. An adventure saga to end all adventure sagas from the best-selling author of “Seabiscuit.” Hillenbrand relates the harum-scarum life of Louis Zamperini — juvenile delinquent, Olympic runner, World War II bombardier, plane crash survivor and Japanese prisoner of war. It’s all here — fistfights, races, fearsome aerial combat, a typhoon with 40-foot waves, ravening sharks, cruel captors and one unbreakable American spirit.

“Anthill” (Norton, $24.95) by E. O. Wilson. World-famous as the founder of sociobiology and a first-class writer and thinker, Mobile’s own E. O. Wilson has now written a novel set in the region that formed his sensibility. His young protagonist is named for the Confederate sea dog Admiral Raphael Semmes, and the descriptions of area swamps and woodlands will be instantly familiar. The imaginative sequences inside an anthill are fascinating and informative.

“Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter” (Morrow, $24.99) by Tom Franklin. Bay area readers know Franklin from his memorable earlier fiction, “Poachers” and “Hell at the Breech,” set in this neck of the woods. His latest offering takes place, obviously, in Mississippi and presents a gritty and layered tale of crime, race and faith. Not for the squeamish, but rendered with Franklin’s award-winning talent.

“Crescent Dawn” (Putnam, $27.95) by Clive Cussler. There’s a waiting list for this thriller at Page & Palette. Cussler, something of an adventurer himself (he discovered the Hunley in 2000), presents his fourth Dirk Pitt installment with the expected mix of intrigue, action and villains aplenty. It ain’t Faulkner, but it’s plenty satisfying if you’re waiting on an airplane or an in-law.

“The Confession” (Doubleday, $28.95) by John Grisham. This ain’t Faulkner either, but then Grisham has never pretended otherwise. But as an author of legal thrillers he has no equal, and in this latest book he demonstrates his usual masterful knowledge of how the criminal justice system works, or doesn’t. The action begins in East Texas, among terrain and types not unfamiliar around here, and revolves around themes of guilt, innocence and redemption. A great time-killer, especially if there’s just enough racket to prevent delving into something deeper.